1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a steeply inclined conveyor comprising an endless elastic conveyor belt having a conveyor surface, guide rollers around which the conveyor belt passes to define a conveying portion and a returning portion of the belt, spaced support rollers for supporting the returning portion of the conveyor belt, and a plurality of stops spaced longitudinally apart on the conveyor surface for engaging material carried by the conveying portion of the belt to halt slippage of the material on the belt in a direction opposite to the conveying direction.
2. Summary of the Prior Art
An arrangement of this type is known having tongue-shaped stops which form an included an angle with the conveying surface of the conveyor belt, the free transversal edge of each stop facing forward in front of the fixing point thereof with respect to the direction of conveying. If the load carried by the conveyor belt begins to slip against the conveying direction, it strikes against the free transversal edge of the tongue and pivots the latter in such a manner that the angle between the conveying surface on the one hand and the tongue on the other hand is increased. By this means the striking area of the tongue-shaped stop is increased and further slipping movement of the conveyed material towards the lowest point of the inclined conveyor is prevented.
It is a drawback of this arrangement, however, that the free leading edges of the outwardly-protruding tongue-shaped stops situated in the returning portion of the conveyor belt run up against the support rollers with the result that, in time, the stops tend to tear at their fixing point in the conveyor belt, thereby adversely affecting their operation.